Chapter 5792: Chapter 4815: Royal Casino (10)

Since we need to find the last safe, we’ll have to split up. Now is the time to test our luck; even as skilled as Batman is, he can only catch one person. Whomever he manages to catch might not be who he wants, but certainly will be someone he encounters.

Among this group, it’s quite evident whose luck is the worst. After parting ways with the others, Greed had barely walked half a floor when he saw the tall figure blocking the doorway.

"What did you see in your fear?" Arkham Batman approached slowly, his footsteps steady. Yet his low, deep voice and heavy steps felt like a death sentence.

The background music played again. This time, the variation had a sort of ethereal morning bell and evening drum feel, reminiscent of flickering lanterns on a mournful night. Greed stood there, looking at Arkham Batman, and said, "When your child leaves you, when you can’t find him anywhere, what you see is what I see." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Arkham Batman stopped in his tracks. Greed continued, "Those unspeakable fears stem from you, and they reflect in us as well. Oppressed, isolated, struck down, controlled, abandoned..."

Arkham Batman had no idea what they had been through, but he could somewhat imagine. These unspeakable fears come from Arkham Batman’s experiences; Superman feels the darkness he felt in Gotham, Matt feels the terrifying illusions caused by the Joker Virus’s sensory confusion, the agent feels his unresolved inner conflicts, Lucifer feels the tragic fate like a contradiction, Greed feels the loneliness and helplessness as everyone distances from him.

At the same time, these tragedies had deeply happened to them, corresponding with their destinies, making those pains and helplessness strike at the soul, bringing unspeakable terror.

This is unlike Doctor Manhattan. Arkham Batman immediately realized it. Batman had once focused on studying Doctor Manhattan. They knew Doctor Manhattan couldn’t be considered as carbon-based life, let alone emotional life. He is more like an absolutely rational creation of nature, almost cold.

Such a person shouldn’t be capable of controlling minds or manipulating emotions to such an extent. Or rather, he wouldn’t choose such a means. It seems, behind this Manhattan Playground, other entities are lurking.

Thinking about these things, Arkham Batman had already reached in front of Greed. Without much hesitation, he directly took down Greed with two punches. He understood, Greed didn’t choose to run away not because he had given up. He stayed and said these things to remind Arkham Batman that this amusement park is not simple.

But this isn’t a good place for chatting. Arkham Batman hoisted Greed. He knew Greed had the skill to resurrect himself, but now it was meaningless. Even if he could resurrect, he simply couldn’t escape.

Arkham Batman carried Greed all the way to the basement. He put Greed on a chair and strapped his hands and feet with cuffs, but didn’t rush to activate the Electric Shock device.

"Are you waiting for someone to save me?" Greed asked with a smile.

"If there is, I won’t refuse," Arkham Batman checked the equipment in his belt, then said, "Tell me in detail what you all encountered."

Now they were all in the game created by Doctor Manhattan, so they couldn’t blatantly mention him. But everyone was smart; they all understood what they were actually talking about.

"It’s an interesting skill," Greed began, "The most exquisite aspect is that it can correspond your pain with ours one by one. Empathizing with others should lead to mutual understanding, but under an adversarial high-pressure environment, it’s inevitable to blame others, belittle their pain, and even belittle your own."

Greed spoke cryptically, but Arkham Batman understood. This skill imposed the pains Arkham Batman once felt onto others. The selected segments were so precise that they just triggered the psychological shadows of the victims.

Not to mention if revisiting past shadows might affect mental health. Just suffering such a Psyshock in this environment is enough to keep people in fear, or even cause a breakdown.

In this situation, it’s hard for people to avoid emotions such as "Why are you bothered by this" or "Why should I be bothered by this." More deeply, emotions like: "Our emotions will kill us all."

These emotions actually stem more from the primal genes of social creatures. In a severely harsh survival situation, almost on the brink of collapse, a tribe will instinctively exclude those who can’t control their emotions.

For example, in prehistoric times, a tribe is out hunting. They crouch in the bushes to ambush prey. But at this time, someone complains about the weather or environment, or someone has a quarrel with a companion and it erupts, causing a disturbance that leads to a failed hunt, leaving the whole tribe hungry. Such a person would surely be excluded from the hunter’s party, because if he is not rational and calm, he cannot bring more food to the tribe.

Although during a crisis it might indeed be inappropriate to be overly concerned with one’s emotional feelings, one should first focus on survival. But if stimulated at this point, causing feelings to influence rationality, doubts about one’s ability to handle the situation might arise, also pondering whether one’s weaknesses dragged down the entire group.

This is a very terrifying uncertainty, especially at critical moments. Once you begin to doubt your judgment when you need to make decisive decisions, hesitating might really cost you your life here.

The skill "Unspeakable Fear" undoubtedly exploits this principle, stimulating people’s emotions in a crisis situation, leading to partial loss of control over their emotions. Once they experience this loss of control, they begin to doubt their abilities, further interfering with their judgment and execution capability.

What’s more ingenious is that this not only excavates the fear inherent in the gamblers as players but also imposes the fears Arkham Batman has experienced on them. This makes players question themselves while also feeling dissatisfaction towards Arkham Batman.

Almost no one doesn’t know what kind of person Batman is. He is strong, determined, fundamentally unshakeable. But empathizing with his pain is a different story. While just people may think that overcoming such pain is admirable, appearing in this way at such times inevitably brings a touch of "doing unto others what you wouldn’t want done to you," cold and unfeeling. If not firm enough, blame may arise.

Not everyone thinks this much or to this extent. But even if there is just a hint, or when the game ends and people calm down to reflect, if they feel something amiss, it’s undoubtedly a crack on the majestic sculpture of Batman’s authority.

Battleworld indeed has many hard instances. Some even Arkham Batman barely got through. There have been many mind manipulation techniques, many originated from Shiller, causing many players to suffer terribly.

However, those mostly stay within the game and don’t involve outside matters. Arkham Batman has never seen things related to his personal experience in Battleworld’s narrative.

But this time is clearly different. This enhanced and upgraded Bat Suit can be said to be packaged around this point. The most important part is the mental attack skill.

It also holds some psychological manipulation techniques. Initially given a less satisfactory skill set, as the situation intensifies without progress, a more powerful set is provided, causing many to immerse in excitement, obsessed with using skills for a killing spree, completely unnoticed about anything amiss.

But obviously, Arkham Batman and Greed are not such people. Although they are temporary enemies, they both understand that it’s just a game. Leaving the game, many things are more important than the game itself.

"I suppose you can’t wait to leave," Arkham Batman said.

"Precisely," Greed didn’t object, nodded and said, "Everything will be fine, won’t it?"

In the flash of electricity, Greed’s body suddenly tightened, raising his head sharply, but seemed not to feel much pain. His figure quickly turned into ashes and scattered. This is somewhat unscientific. But Arkham Batman knew the game won’t leave corpses, possibly to prevent corpse play, though he wouldn’t do it, others might.

"Everything will be fine..." Arkham Batman murmured. He indeed felt something odd. Greed seemed eager to leave the field, as if to cause trouble for Doctor Manhattan. Arkham Batman didn’t doubt he would do this, but felt he also had other intentions.

However, Arkham Batman was too busy to think much. He must stop them from unlocking the safe. Now, only one safe remains; once opened, they can escape. That’s not the result Arkham Batman wants.

Arkham Batman has the map; he can clearly see the positions of the remaining safes. Estimating from the previous positions of the gamblers, Arkham Batman headed towards one of the safes.

Just upon arrival, he saw Matt already fiddling with the safe. Arkham Batman already raised his fist, but Matt suddenly turned and directly flashed a high-powered flashlight in his face. Arkham Batman’s vision went entirely white, and Matt had already run out by the time he reacted.

Arkham Batman glanced at the progress of opening the safe, not even a quarter complete. Matt probably didn’t have speed reading skills. Arkham Batman quickly chased after him, but Matt used pepper spray again, which annoyed Arkham Batman.

It’s because he didn’t eliminate Greed early, allowing him to develop, which causes them to have so many props now. But now isn’t the time to get angry. He chased Matt again, only to have Matt block his view, followed by a door plank slapped on his face.

Arkham Batman wasn’t anxious, continuing to chase after him. Matt’s props were exhausted. Pursued into an open area, Batman punched him down.

However, Arkham Batman didn’t take him to the basement. As it would be too time-consuming. Matt didn’t have a self-recovery skill, others should be occupied with the last safe, unlikely to rescue him. So Arkham Batman just carried him to a small room and left him there.